Circus Peanuts
I knew I liked Shauna when I found out that she was a fan of circus peanuts. I was a near stranger. She was a work friend of my boyfriend, Luke, and I had just taken a new job at the company where they worked. It was not the wisest move. Neither Luke nor I was thrilled about the proximity, but it was, as they say, a job I couldnt refuse. Shauna had the cubicle next to mine and saw me sampling the vending machines offerings. Expecting a disgusted response, she confessed that circus peanuts were her favorite candy, with Peeps running a close second. I took the news in stride. I had had my circus peanuts phase, on summer working on Wall Street, but Shaunas passion made me realize that I hadnt given them full credit.
Think about it, she said. They are big, foamy, and look sort of like peanuts. But they are orange. Peanuts arent orange. And if they taste like anything, its banana. Bananas arent orange, and they most certainly dont look like peanuts. There was a logical explanation for this. One expert claims that the original circus peanuts were supposed to taste like peanut, but the flavoring wasnt consistent, so they started using cheap, reliable banana oil. True to its circus origins, the candy itself was a mockery of candy. It said, Im not what I look like, and Im not what I taste like. So what? Life is a farce. Send in the clowns. I looked at Shauna with new respect.
At the end of my very first week of work, Luke and I broke up. We were watching TV on a Friday night. I was eating a bag of pretty peach-gummies. I turned to him and said, I feel eighty.
He said, I think we should break up. I dont think this is working out.
Shouldnt we try to make it better? This was happening very quickly. We had never talked about our problems before.
I already have tried.
I couldnt touch gummy-anything for at least a week.
At work, Luke and I kept the breakup on the low-down. I had just started the job, and people hadnt met us as a couple. We figured what they hadnt known in the first place wouldnt hurt them. Shauna was one of the few people who knew me as Lukes girlfriend, but neither Luke nor I had told her it was over. The three of us walked to a bar for a party. At the bar, Shauna made room so that Luke and I could sit next to each other.
Dont bother, I said.
We broke up, he added. Shauna was startled, but we all laughed it off. After my first beer, I slipped into the bathroom, then came out to order another beer with perfect cheer. I didnt mind being the crying-jag girl for a bit. I knew it would pass. We would be awkward for a while, but soon work would be work, and our personal lives would go their separate ways.
I made sure not to overcultivate my friendship with Shauna. Luke had few friends, and I thought it would be inconsiderate to encroach on his territory. All this was to change. I had no clue how important Shauna would turn out to be. She was a clever, hardworking girl from the Midwest, but I should have known, when I saw how much she liked circus peanuts, that she had a complexity and humor that she didnt advertise. Our friendship would grow later, but our shared enthusiasm for candy was undeniable from the start. For her birthday, I bought a plain paper bag and filled it with several packs of circus peanuts.
I cant get over this, she said when she opened it. She gave me a big Ohio smile. This is the most thoughtful gift Ive ever received.
The Truth about Circus Peanuts
Shauna went home to Hudson, Ohio, for the towns annual ice-cream social. When she came back, we went to a movie. She brought me a bag of circus peanuts. Our friendship had been founded on the first circus peanuts that I gave her, and now they were a token of that friendship. We read the wrapper:
Ingredients: sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, glycerin, modified soy protein, sodium hexametaphosphate, pectin, artificial color (FD&C yellow #6), artificial flavor.
I had never read the ingredients before. Then I noticed, in tiny print at the bottom of the label:
May contain traces of peanuts/ nuts.
Who knew that circus peanuts had any relation whatsoever to nuts?
-- Hilary Liftin, Candy and Me
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
the following weekend, i believe i am road-tripping up to the NY/NJ area for various events. you're welcome to come along for the SGNJ strip club event, but i've got to do the friends and family thing the rest of the weekend, so you'd sorta be on your own...unless we can drag other peeps into this.